Institutionalising global standards of responsible corporate citizenship: assessing the role of the UN Global Compact

2017 ◽  
pp. 114-128
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (13) ◽  
pp. 6982
Author(s):  
Alice Hengevoss

This study empirically assesses the impact of nonprofit organizations (NPOs) on multi-actor global governance initiatives. Multi-actor global governance initiatives have emerged to strengthen joint action among different societal actors to tackle transnational social and environmental issues. While such initiatives have received a great deal of academic attention, previous research has primarily focused on businesses’ perspectives. In light of the important role of NPOs within such initiatives, critically addressing NPOs’ role by assessing their impact on the effectiveness of such initiatives is crucial. This article builds on the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC)—the largest multi-actor global governance initiative in the world—and offers a panel analysis on a unique dataset including 820 NPOs from 68 different countries. The findings suggest that NPOs have indeed strengthened the UNGC over time, yet their engagement explains only a small fraction of differences in UNGC activity across countries. This study contributes to the emerging research on nonprofits’ social responsibility by fostering the actorhood thesis, which places higher responsibility for the impact and requirements for accountability on NPOs. Furthermore, the study supports discussions about the increasing political role of NPOs by providing the first empirical evidence for their political leadership and impact in multi-actor global governance initiatives.


Author(s):  
Janine M. Pierce ◽  
Donna M. Velliaris

Supply chains provide many challenges to organizations relating to ethical practices at all levels of the supply chain in an often non-transparent environment, with different operator values through different geographic and cultural locations. Considerations are discussed relating to the link between ethics and brand success, challenges and risk issues relating to ethical supply chains, the role of partnering with others in the supply chain, and the friend or foe consideration of NGOs. The importance and value of bodies such as the UN Global Compact and ACSI to comply with sustainability standards and achieve accreditation as a double benefit strategy for being a responsible organization, as well as enhancing brand, are highlighted. The values of certification and partnership networks are emphasized, with concluding reflections on how partnerships and strength in ethical supply chain are dependent on the need to have every link in the chain be ethical and transparent.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 323
Author(s):  
Wahyudi Purnomo ◽  
Novita Putri Rudiany ◽  
Citra Hennida

Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) have emerged along with the growing role of corporations in global development. One of the largest forms of PPP today is the UN Global Compact. The UN Global Compact involves of companies, NGOs, IGOs and state governments. All of them are trying to realize globalization with a more humanist face with attention to the protection of human rights, environment, labor standards and anti-corruption. Engaging private actors in global governance, The UN Global Compact raises many issues such as power, authority, and legitimacy. The effort to tackle it all is to increase PPP accountability. This research seeks to describe what efforts can be made to enhance private accountability within the international regime. The research undertaken is a descriptive study, focuses on public-private partnerships in the UN Global Compact regime. The study found that there were two attempts that could be done. First, by involving the stakeholders in the development of procedures, mechanisms, reporting and monitoring associated with trying to improve the company’s reputation. Second, by looking at corporate relations as agent and UN Global Compact as principal in principal-agent relation in the international regime.


2014 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Voegtlin ◽  
Nicola M. Pless

2004 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 755-774 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver F. Williams

Abstract:The UN Global Compact is a voluntary initiative designed to help fashion a more humane world by enlisting business to follow ten principles concerning human rights, labor, the environment, and corruption. Although the four-year-old Compact is a relatively successful initiative, having signed up over eleven hundred companies and more than two hundred of the large multinationals, and having begun some important projects on globalization issues, there is a serious problem in that very few of the major U.S. companies have joined. While the premier U.S. companies are interested in meeting the legitimate expectations of society, there is concern centering around accountability issues. The accountability issues are in four major areas: 1. Accountability showing that the globalization of the economy actually helps the poor. 2. Accountability showing the corporate performance matches rhetoric. 3. Accountability that provides legitimacy to a two-tier pricing system and other measures that are designed to assist the poor in developing countries. 4. Accountability in the human rights area; what societal expectations are multinational companies accountable for? The article outlines the problems that the Compact brings to the fore and offers some insight from the ethical literature that may address U.S. company concerns or provide new ways of thinking about the issues. It further argues that the forum provided by the Compact may be the most effective means to gain consensus of the role of business in society.


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